Smoke from Canadian fires blacks out New York, puts Northeastern US on alert | Climate and environment

Dense smoke from wildfires in Canada, accompanied by the smell of burning, darkened New York and parts of the US Northeast on Tuesday. Visibility in the Big Apple was almost completely reduced (it was impossible to see landmarks like the top of the Empire State Building, ever visible), while the sky took on a yellow hue, typical of sandstorms at other latitudes. The New York State Department of the Environment has issued a warning of poor air quality, at least through midnight Wednesday, as social media lit up with snapshots of the city smoldering.

Weather officials have warned people who are most sensitive to poor air quality, such as lung and heart patients, children and the elderly, to limit their outdoor activities. New York Mayor Eric Adams recalled on Twitter the need to limit exposure to “absolutely necessary” cases in the case of patients with heart or lung pathology. Similar warnings are in place in Connecticut, Massachusetts and some counties in Vermont.

The day dawned with a light shower in the Big Apple, followed by clear and sunny skies until midday, brightening as the calendar prepares to reach the summer solstice, the longest days of the year tinged with coppery yellow, dotted with red in some parts of the city. Visibility from the bridges connecting New Jersey and its twin states, Brooklyn and Manhattan to Queens, was nearly zero by mid-afternoon, appearing between the mist and fog of stormy days.

According to the Canadian Inter-Agency Wildfire Centre, there were more than 400 wildfires burning in Canada as of Tuesday, which is expected to worsen an already intense fire season. According to the aforementioned agency, more than 200 fires are not under control. As of Monday, more than 26,000 Canadians had been evacuated from their homes due to the fires.

It’s not the first time smoke from a Canadian fire has reached the US Northeast, but it’s the first day of apocalyptic overhangs. Sites using interactive cameras, such as EarthCam, posted surreal images throughout the afternoon, including the cut-out silhouettes of the New York skyscrapers that are so well known. skyline, cut off by fog. Blindness disappeared in New York this Tuesday, when on normal days it can be seen from any high point for several kilometers.

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